Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2015 från Guitarist

The other week I succumbed to the hype and went to watch Fleetwood Mac at the O2 Arena in London. Let it be said, this 40-year-old line-up gave one of the most uplifting performances I’ve ever seen. But it was the bravery of Lindsey Buckingham’s solo acoustic rendition of Big Love that impressed most. About halfway through the three-hour show, the rest of the band cleared off, leaving Lindsey in the spotlight with an acoustic guitar and a cosy gathering of 20,000 people. And he started to play. Not simple strumming but fiery, complex fingerstyle, singing at the top of his lungs, until the final chord slashed down and the crowd erupted. This fearless performance with no safety net was a genuine tonic, reminding you how guitar playing can be…

This one is all about inversions and chromatic bass lines. But don’t worry, it’s designed for beginners! In most chords, the lowest note (the bass) is the root note. That’s the case with this very familiar opening chord… But in an inversion, you have one of the chord’s other notes at the bottom, and this gives you great control over the shape of the bass line. This is a G chord, but the bass is B, descending from the C of the previous chord. Now the bass drops further to Bb, at the bottom of an inverted G minor. Note the extra open E on top of both G chords, making them G6 and Gm6. It creates continuity between the four chords. Finally, the chromatically descending bass line takes us…

1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “My first guitar was a six-string Spanish guitar and I got it when I was nine. It would have been around 1960 and the first song I learned to play on it would probably have been a Lonnie Donegan song like My Old Man’s A Dustman. But my dad bought me the Strat on the front cover of Motivation Radio because I went to a public school – the City Of London School – and I did quite well on my O Levels and I won a scholarship, which meant that my father didn’t have to pay fees any more and he bought me that guitar. We found it through Exchange & Mart or Melody Maker – one…

Who Is He? Born in Bellflower, California in 1975 and currently rated as one of the hottest blues players on the planet. He’s played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg, but now this soul-fired bluesman is hitting the solo trail… Who Has He Listened To? Kirk Fletcher’s fascination with the guitar began at the age of eight when his elder brother Walter introduced him to the instrument. Initially, he was drawn to the gospel music he heard in his father’s church, but soon found himself listening to the rock guitar virtuosi of the 1980s. After a while he discovered BB King and a lifetime’s fascination with the blues was set in motion. Kirk began hanging out at a guitar shop in Redondo Beach, California, where he met…

“I met BB King in 1974 in Zaire, Africa [now the Democratic Republic of the Congo]. I was there with The Crusaders and BB had his band there,” Larry recalls. “James Brown was there, Bill Withers. It was the Foreman/Ali fight. I believe that was the first time and I played rhythm guitar in his set, which was a thrill. He needed a rhythm guitar and I was there. Later, in ’84, I was doing the album that ended up being Friends. I got a hold of BB and he came to my house and came downstairs to ‘Room 335’ and it was Joe Sample, Jeff Porcaro and Abraham Laboriel. We had a chance to spend the afternoon together and play the blues. I saw him a couple of more…

Time-travel back to the early 1960s and the choice of amplifier for the up and coming rock ’n’ roll guitarist was not in any way as extensive as it is today. Recognising that an expensive import was practically the only choice for a player looking to emulate the gain-laden sounds on LPs from the USA, Jim Marshall set up his own manufacturing business. The rest, as they say, is history. And if you want to go poking around the company’s archives in search of the story of how the stack came to rule the world, there’s no better person to ask than Phil Wells, head of Marshall’s heritage and archive… THE AMPS What were the first moves towards making the 100-watt head? phil wells: “When Jim started in 1962 he…

No matter how carefully a vintage amp is restored, the proof is in the playing. Luckily we had bluesman Innes Sibun, a former member of Robert Plant’s band, along for the ride. Innes has just released a powerful new solo album of blues-rock, Blues Transfusion, and kindly agreed to act as our Les Paul-toting test pilot when we cranked up this newly refurbished slice of Marshall history to ‘patent applied for’ volume. “It’s down to the individual personality and character that they have,” Innes said of the amp’s vintage Marshall mystique. “And also just the mojo, the history… you look at that amp and you think, ‘Wow, who’s played through that? What records has that been on?’” We plug in and with Neil Perry looking on like an anxious father,…

The licks we’ve presented here trace the development of rock technique in the hands of key players as it developed in step with the ever-increasing shovelfuls of gain available from Marshall’s ever-evolving amps. Certainly, there are many more legendary guitarists we could have included – Angus Young and Zakk Wylde come to mind – but getting these licks under your fingers will help you master the principles of getting air moving while retaining articulation, feel and speed. And while unleashing what guitarist Joel O’Keeffe of Airbourne called “the Marshall wind” is a rite-of-passage experience for any guitarist, any decent high-gain head and closed-back cab will do the trick for getting to grips with the full girth and grunt of these examples, so plug in, turn on and rock out. EX1…

Attention all noble warriors of the fretboard! Beginning in the next issue of Guitarist, Guthrie Govan will be kicking off a series of five monthly masterclasses that focus on the aristocratic art of string bending. With tab in the magazine and video out there in the nebulous regions of the interweb, Guthrie will teach you how to push steel in various genres including blues, rock, country and more, month by month. You’ll be able to see in fine close-up detail the sort of string bending techniques that GG uses in his own hair-raising solo outings. Prepare for sore fingers when issue 398 hits the streets on the 21 August!…

GIBSON COLLECTOR’S CHOICE #18 1960 LES PAUL ‘DUTCHBURST’ £5,799 This is a fabulous recreation of a real ’Burst aimed at collectors and investors. We said “a joy to behold, a thrill to play and exhilarating to hear”. And let’s face it, if you put another dent in it, who’s going to notice, really? www.gibson.com FANO ALT DE FACTO ML6 £2,749 An elegantly distressed collision of classic designs from Dennis Fano, the ML6 is an aged guitar that didn’t actually exist. Daft? Not at all. Hold onto to your wallet. www.fanoguitars.com NIK HUBER DOLPHIN SURFMEISTER £3,699 While Nik Huber makes many pristine gloss-finished super guitars, his low-gloss finish and various more distressed-looking finishes add even more vintage cool to his superb guitars. www.nikhuber-guitars.com FENDER ROAD WORN ‘60S STRAT £1,162 If you…

1 Another high-end rock guitar? Well, yes. Rock players are generally spoiled for choice, but Caparison instruments are made in Japan and designed by Itaru Kanno, a former member of the Charvel/Jackon Japanese division from the late 80s – some true pedigree. The company claims to favour quality over quantity, though that comes at a price. 2 Are these new models? Yes and no. The Prominence is a new addition to the Dellinger series and it’s the first carved top version. The Angelus M3B has been vastly updated, including a string-through-body bridge and new aesthetics. Both models feature Caparison’s M3 composite body construction. 3 Can they do anything but rock? Caparison’s aim seems to be pretty clear: rock and metal guitars for rock and metal players! It’s refreshing to have…

1 Córdoba? Isn’t that a city in Spain? It is, and Córdoba does make guitars in Spain (the España Series is made in Valencia), but the majority – the Iberia, Fusion, Luthier and the beginner Protégé series, along with the steel-string Acero guitars – are made in China. The high-end Master Series is handmade in Oxnard, California, not too far from Córdoba’s HQ in Santa Monica. 2 Why should we be interested? Córdoba’s masterplan is to make the traditional classical and flamenco guitar available to all guitarists, not least with our pair of modern ‘crossover’ guitars on review. 3 Classical, flamenco… What’s the difference? A‘flamenco’ guitar will have a very light build and traditionally uses light-coloured cypress back and sides. Its action is lower than a concert classical. You should…

The first of our quartet of pedals from Japanese effects maker One Control is very fitting because it comes with just one large knob! The Granith Grey Boost is a clean boost pedal with a design emphasis on low-noise operation. Designer Björn Juhl says that the pedal achieves the same signal-to-noise ratio as a high-end audio amplifier, and we can vouch that it adds very little in the way of noise. At the lowest level of the knob you get silence, unity gain being achieved somewhere near the 11 o’clock point and the boosts beyond that, which means that you can use the pedal to reduce volume as well as boost it, which is useful for making a driven valve amp instantly a touch cleaner. With a maximum boost of…

While we’ve all seen plenty of treble boost pedals from manufacturers at pretty much every price point, midrange boost pedals are a bit thinner on the ground. The Purple Humper is one such beast and is based on the now out-of-production and rare BJFE midrange booster, originally developed by BJF for someone who wanted his Stratocaster to compete with an ES-335. That extra output combined with a tonal shift is what the pedal offers: up to 15dB of midrange boost, delivered via a single Blend knob. While it can be used to get a more strident sound out of a clean amp, this is a pedal that is at its best in front of an already dirty amp or in conjunction with an overdrive or distortion pedal, where it will…

Guitars That Jam Jay Blakesberg Insight Editions$29.99 Photographer Jay Blakesberg presents his archive of shots of famous and not-so-familiar guitarists playing live, and adds commentaries from more than 60 artists, all with a common theme – their love of their guitars. Because the focus of these is on the personal connection between each musician and their instrument, the book succeeds in going beyond a mere exhibition: it’s by no means essential, but goes some way to unravelling the intricacies of the special bond that performers develop with their guitars. The Guitar Amp Handbook Dave Hunter Backbeat Books $29.99 If you’ve ever been baffled (no pun intended) by the complexities of valve-based amplification, then rectify the situation with this in-depth book. Featuring explanations about all the major models, amp designs and…

Electric Nik Huber Dolphin Surfmeister £3,699 We said “Not just for surf players, it’s a brilliant all-rounder” Acoustic Yamaha SLG200S £515 We said “The Silent Guitar is better than ever – the ultimate practice tool” Amp Marshall JCM 25/50 2555x £1,199 We said “A great reissue of one of the most coveted Marshalls” Effect Laney IRT-Pulse £199 We said “This is a one-stop-shop desktop preamp with a great feature set” Misc DigiTech TRIO Band Creator £149 We said “An invaluable tool for practice and songwriting”…

The first time the wider world became aware of the Derek Trucks phenomenon was a piece on American TV news in the early 1990s. The duckling-blond kid in the baseball cap might have been swamped by his instrument, yet his touch and feel were sufficiently dazzling to make fellow slide guitar maestro Sonny Landreth snap to attention. “I saw this clip on the news, this little kid playing slide,” Landreth later remembered. “Me and my bass player, we just looked at each other and said, ‘Yep, that kid’s got it…’” Landreth’s prediction was right on the money. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1979, the precocious slide man might have been the nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, but any sense of Southern rock nepotism evaporated as he ascended through…

When we hook up with Justin Hawkins – The Darkness’s ever-eccentrically attired front man – at Gibson Guitars in London’s Oxford Circus, we find him in characteristically effusive mood. During our photo shoot, he bounces around the studio space pulling absurd poses. One second he’s doing the splits with a single eyebrow raised, à la Roger Moore, the next wielding a Flying V like a cricket bat. Despite admitting he’s shattered, the man is seemingly all energy. As our interview begins, however, Justin’s innate sensitivity, self-awareness and heartfelt passion all come to the fore. It’s a few weeks before the release of The Darkness’s fourth album, Last Of Our Kind, and Hawkins couldn’t be prouder of the results. The impressive long player was produced by Justin’s brother and Darkness co-guitarist…

JTM45 Created by Jim Marshall and backroom boys Ken Bran and Dudley Craven in 1962, the very earliest JTM45 made rather less than 45 watts of clean output and had an off-centre aluminium control plate. By ‘65, they had changed to a gold Plexiglass panel, with the script logo following by ‘66. SUPER LEAD 1959 Dating back to 1965, the original Super Lead ‘Plexi’ is the amp behind some of rock’s greatest guitar moments. Page, Hendrix, Clapton, Kossoff, Van Halen, Young, Gibbons…the list stretches on. Originally introduced in 1965 with KT66s, and changed to four EL34s in 1967. Major 200-watt Released in 1967 as the ‘200’, the rare Major delivered 200 watts from four KT88 valves. Early models had active EQ, revised to the standard passive network later. The Major’s…

Paul Rivera’s career started in New York, but took off when he relocated to California in the early 1970s, working from a shop located over Valley Arts Guitars in North Hollywood on the edge of Studio City. While most of us in the UK remember him for his association with Fender, Rivera’s custom work on Marshall amps and pedalboards is just as significant. Guitarist meets Paul for a rare interview in which he explains how he got into modifying amps and gives us a unique Californian perspective on the Marshall sound. When did it all really start for you – was Valley Arts the beginning? paul rivera sr: “At that time, Valley Arts was the epicentre of the whole LA studio scene. I didn’t realise it back then, but it…

HEADS STACK UP “My first ‘stack’, if you can dignify it with that name, was a venerable 50-watt Sound City PA head with four identical channels sitting proudly astride a Trace Elliott 412 cab. This unlovely rig actually sounded okay – or at least it didn’t cost very much and carried on working despite the spilt beer it picked up during teenage gigs. But after that eventually died, I switched to Fender combos for many years. “However, the recent boom in compact heads such as the Victory V40 and Mesa’s Mark Five:25 has made me reconsider the stack. Small enough to carry anywhere, you can match lunchbox heads with a compact 112 cab for pub gigs, and even start GAS-ing at the thought of collecting a few, with contrasting tonal…

PRS CUSTOM 24 30TH ANNIVERSARY £3,125 The classic mahogany/maple double-cut Custom is one of PRS’s most famous models. Of the 30th Anniversary model reviewed in issue 391, we said it’s “the most classic-sounding custom to date”. The ‘out-of-reach’ status has also now been addressed with the introduction of the much more affordable, but still American-made, S2 series, at less than half the price of the USA core range. VIGIER EXCALIBUR 13 £2,229 A brand that often flies under the radar, Vigier continues to produce high-end rock guitars featuring an innovative carbon-reinforced neck system that stays forever straight. The 13, reviewed in issue 387, came from the idea to create an Excalibur that was “versatile and an ideal choice for players of any style or genre”, although the ballsy bridge humbucker…

Yamaha’s classical-style NCX and crossover NTX start at £620 for the spruce/laminated nato 700s; £581 for the cedar-topped versions. Excellent gigging guitars, not least with System 61 electronics with the ART two-way soundboard transducer pickup system. Originally a non-cutaway design, Admira’s Virtuoso has been upgraded to an ‘EC’ cutaway at £625. It’s Spanish-made with solid cedar top, laminate rosewood back and sides, plus Shadow’s Nanoflex Pickup and 4Plus preamp. If that flamenco sound is in mind, then check out the Camps CUT-500S electro cutaway (£615) made in the Catalonia region and featuring solid spruce top with laminated sandalwood back and sides, ebony fingerboard, golpeador tap plate and Fishman Clásica pickup system…

The great divide in effects widens, with affordable multi-effects units such as the Line 6 Firehawk FX (p124) moving ever-closer to the kind of capabilities that ‘brain the size of a planet’ professional modelling effects units such as Fractal Audio System’s Axe-Fx II offer. Line 6’s Helix, aimed at pros and serious enthusiasts, reviewed soon in Guitarist, will likely be a step closer still. Which of the tribe suits you best will depend not only on budget, but ultimately on what your priorities are: seamless live operation or having ultra-configurable tones on tap in the studio. Or both? Meanwhile, DigiTech has gone the other way and embraced the warped individualism of boutique pedals, with its excellent Obscura Altered Delay (p130), which could be a psychedelic warrior or noisenik’s best friend.…

All six pedals here come from One Control’s BJF series, which uses a BJF buffer to enhance signal clarity on long signal chains. The use of the English language in some of One Control’s descriptions of the BJF pedals can raise a smile, but the gist of what is said about the Anodised Brown Distortion is that it’s designed to provide cranked stack distortion while retaining amp ‘feel’, rather than feeling flat and undynamic like some pedals do. We’d say that’s about right: it will go from crunchy raunch to stack at full pelt, all with loads of touch sensitivity and with bags of sustain with a harmonic edge under your fingertips on higher settings of the gain knob. It also features a tone knob that works over a completely…

The Strawberry Red Over Drive is an original, designed for use with any amp. There’s lots of headroom here – with volume up and drive down it can be used as a clean boost, offering about 6dB of gain for a volume kick. That can have a tonal shift if you want it, as the treble knob operates in the 700Hz to 7kHz range to offer a small but crucial cut or boost in your amp’s upper frequencies. The overdrive is nicely touch sensitive, too, and offers richly organic, cranked valve amp-like tones (not unlike certain pedals that are designed to offer Dumblelike tones), and cleans up really well with guitar volume if you want to tone things down that way. The low end is pretty tight anyway, but there’s…

CONTACT TC Helicon PHONE N/A WEB www.tchelicon.com It might be called a VoiceSolo but it’s the “all-in-one personal PA, vocal monitor, instrument amplifier and vocal reverb unit” bit that should interest performing acoustic guitar players. With a face not much bigger than an iPad, the wedge enclosure is rigid and lightweight (3kg) with a full-range 6.5-inch Tannoy two-way coaxial ICT Driver and 150 watts of Class-D power. You can use it, via two neat rear clips, on a music or mic (adaptor supplied), table or floor. There are two channels (with combi jack/XLR inputs), plus a third auxiliary with mini-jack input for your mp3. That third channel has a Voice Cancel feature for vocal practice; the main two have a Vocal Tone preset (EQ, compression and de-essing). Each channel has…

Expert Panel Jamie Dickson Guitaristeditor Jamie is as happy with steel wool in his hand as he is with Steely Dan in his headphones, and loves vintage-gear restoration and ambitious signal chains. Dave Burrluck Guitarist’s assiduous reviews editor is also the author of numerous guitar books.Very handy with a fret file and indeed any aspect of a finely fettled six-string. Mick Taylor Ex-editorof Guitarist,Mick haswieldedAllenkeys, screwdrivers and sandpaper from an early age; he also has a worrying obsession with pedalboards. Neville Marten Edited Guitaristfor13years, after working for both Fender and Gibson as a repairer. From desirable Les Pauls to dream Strats, he’s owned and worked on the lot. Nick guppy Guitarist’s amplifier specialist has built up a wealth of experience gained from collecting, repairing and restoring all kinds of guitar-related…

Launched in 1959, the ES-345 was aimed to sit in between the 335 and the slightly more luxuriously appointed 355 models in the Gibson catalogue. Like its stablemates, the 345 was originally designed to summon up the mellowness of an f-hole jazzer and combine it with the raunch of a solidbody. In order to achieve this, the 335-style instruments had a maple block running the length of the body to add warmth and sustain as well as eliminate troublesome feedback in one fell swoop. One thing that set the 345 apart was its Varitone switching and stereo wiring, the former having achieved some notoriety in guitar circles, with many players insisting that it did more harm than good! The model has seen some variations in its livery since introduction –…

Eric Johnson Ah Via Musicom This album, containing Johnson’s Grammy Award-winning masterpiece Cliffs Of Dover, should grace every guitarist’s record collection. It shows what a superbly musical mind the man has, and his ability across many musical genres. But it’s that amazing opening track that contains so many of his trademark sextuplet minor pentatonic licks that gives it its place here. Joe Bonamassa Different Shades Of Blue While the superb title track could be Bad Company with Gary Moore guesting, the whole album is packed with great songs and full of Joe’s tremendous soloing and singing. The gorgeous Oh Beautiful!, So, What Would I Do and others show his ability to straddle blues and rock with consummate ease and panache. The album is also littered with Joe’s cool repetitive licks.…

FIRST PLAY ROCK ’N’ ROLL RELICS THUNDERS II £1,899 WHAT IS IT? Evocative take on the ‘double-cut with P-90s’ vibe Luthier Billy Rowe hand-builds his Rock ck ’N’ Roll Relics guitars to an exacting recipe. Each one is constructed using select timbers, then finished in nitrocellulosee and aged to three different levels of distress. It’s not just the bodies that are meticulously considered either – tuners, bridges, pickups,, pots and capacitors are specially sourced and, while hardly cheap, the guitars come in at considerably under the equivalent ‘name’ model. Rowe puts his own spin on classic designs, mixing models, hardware and electrics, often n creating wonderful hybrids in the Fano vein,, so clearly there’s a market willing to forego big big--brand kudos while retaining vintage vibe. Named after late Les…

Is it too soon to think of mid-80s guitar designs as ‘vintage’? 30 years have passed now, after all… Regardless of where you straddle the monitor on that particular conundrum, Vintage’s new V6M24 Rock Series model will catch the eye of any player with a fondness for twin-humbucker S-types, divebombs and spandex. Coming on strong in day-glo Daytona Yellow, Laguna Blue and Ventura Green finishes, the low-profile contoured alder body has a quadruple-bolted maple neck with 24 medium-jumbo-frets, a 25.5-inch scale and Wilkinson WJ07LH E-Z-Lok machineheads working in tandem with the VS50IIK vibrato system. The pickups are Wilkinson Double Coils, controlled with a three-way selector, volume and tone controls, and at £249, the V6M24 is considerably cheaper than a trip to Sunset Strip. See www.jhs.co.uk for more.…

The guitar industry never ceases to surprise us with ingenious new designs, and here’s the latest clever idea we’ve come across: the Submarine. It’s a pickup from singer-songwriter Pete Roe that attaches non-destructively to your acoustic or electric, effectively acting as a pair of micro pickups, which amplify two strings independently of the others. This enables you to apply separate effects and amps to this signal via the supplied cable; possible applications include using a sub-octave pedal to turn your acoustic’s bass strings into bass-guitar-style accompaniment, or adding a reverb or delay effect to the top strings of your guitar to bathe your fingerpicking in ghostly shimmer. The Submarine has been launched on crowdfunding site Ulele: head to www.submarinepickup.com to see it in action.…

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Dear Guitarist, having been quoted £100 by a well-known budget airline to take my guitar to the Costa Brava for this year’s holiday got me thinking. Could I make one that fitted inside my cabin bag for under £100 myself? A quick scour of the internet and £35 later, I was the owner of an old CSL Les Paul copy, made in Japan. This provided me with a neck and all the hardware I needed. A further £6 later, I had a hardwood block that would form the body. Plenty of practice and a lot of sawdust later again, the guitar was complete. What I needed next was a good micro amp. This was solved by taking out a subscription to Guitarist with the free…

What was your first gig? “My first ever gig as a kid was at primary school. We did a term in music on the blues, and I grew up with my dad feeding me blues and folk records so I felt like I had some sort of inside knowledge at the age of six or seven. We had to do a school concert and I practised for about three months for this big moment of playing in front of the school on a borrowed Encore electric – and then spent the entire first five minutes in front of the entire school fiddling with a faulty jack on this guitar. It was literally the most embarrassing moment of my life, and my dad had got out of work to come and…

The weathered ’69 ES-335 sitting on its stand on an empty stage this afternoon has certainly earned its keep over the years. Its owner, Larry Carlton, has played this guitar to such dazzling effect, on so many albums, that every hairline check in the lacquer of its headstock might stand for a hit. From Michael Jackson to Joni Mitchell, Larry Carlton’s playing has added grace and sophistication to career-apex albums by some of rock’s greatest artists. Today, however, he’s touring his own material. Carlton has recorded over 30 solo albums, which gives him the luxury of wandering at leisure through his sizeable back catalogue, changing gears between stately blues and energetic fusion as the mood takes him. “I’m playing songs that I have been doing for the last five or…

“When I first started playing, I used combos because I couldn’t afford stacks, but I used to look longingly at them through the music shop windows in Lowestoft! I’ve actually only recently got back into the Marshall stacks and now I’m playing the Mark II Super Leads. I actually have two so I’m living my childhood dream now… in stereo! “Going back, I didn’t want a Marshall stack because of the guitarists that used them, actually, although I am aware that everybody that I like plays through them, or at least pretends to! It’s partly because they’re so iconic, isn’t it? It’s just a brilliant colour scheme, a really great design and even if the cat’s pissed on the grille at the front, it’ll still looks cool! Whether it’s beaten…

It’s the kind of find we all dream about: a historic vintage amp, bought in the years before such things became sought-after, that has been quietly dwelling in a cupboard for years and has now come to light once again, in time-machine condition. The 1964 Marshall JTM45 MkII we’re looking at hails from an era when music was on the brink of a revolution. It was built only months after The Beatles released their debut studio album, Please Please Me. Two more years would pass before Eric Clapton recorded the ‘Beano’ album with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, while Hendrix’s Woodstock performance was still half a decade away. And while its quaint Art Deco ‘Coffin’ badge harked back to the swing bands of the 1930s, the sounds it was capable of generating…

Hughes & Kettner Puretone 25-watt head £1,699 The Puretone is a special amp. Known for complex, multi-function designs, H&K blew us away with this no-frills hand-wired monster powered by two EL34s. If you don’t care for the illuminated Plexiglas front, our advice is to close your eyes and just listen. Sensational. Marshall JVM410H £1,799 Marshall’s current flagship head is a four-channel, fire-breathing monster. In typical Marshall fashion, it’s capable of wreaking sonic havoc; however, it’s also capable of great subtlety, with the muscle to compete with any of the world’s super amps at an attainable price. Fargen Olde 800 MkII 50-watt head £1,999 Hard-as-nails old-school build quality and extreme attention to detail are the Fargen’s trademarks, combined with a clever ‘decade switch’ feature that…

There’s a very well known syndrome among musicians called ‘that difficult third album’, but it doesn’t seem to have troubled The Aristocrats in the slightest. Far from it, in fact. Tres Caballeros appears to have had an easy birth, Guthrie admitting that he believes it to represent the band far better than anything else to date. Recorded at LA’s legendary Sunset Sound studios, which has seen the likes of Led Zep and Van Halen pass through its hallowed doors, the new record is every bit as intense and powerful as you’d expect with some guitar solos that boldly go where no fretmeisters have gone before. One of the first things we noticed is that there’s considerably more overdubbing on the new disc… “The overdub approach was very much an intentional…

1 More bashed up Strats and Teles!? What’s new? There’s plenty new from Fender’s Custom Shop for this year, albeit centred on the big four designs. This Ancho Poblano Strat, for example, uses new-design pickups – the neck and middle have heavy Formvar wire and custom staggered Alnico III magnets, while the bridge uses heavy enamelled wire with Alnico V flat magnets. They aim to offer a big, balanced sound. 2 What about the Tele? Well, it’s the latest iteration in the hugely popular Cabronita-style, but is more Tele-like with TV Jones neck pickup, the Fender RSD intonated bridge and Greasebucket tone circuit. 3 They’re not cheap! No, but they are Custom Shop guitars with highly detailed build and specs, not too mention the artificial ageing. They feel really vintage-like…

Since it acquired the brand in 2011, the UK-based Caparison Guitar Company has been responsible for focusing the aim in a distinctly mainstream direction. Although still preferring a low-volume but high-quality output, these rock and metal guitars are beginning to emerge as serious contenders to the higher-end models of rock aristocrats such as Ibanez, ESP and Jackson. To correlate with this growth, 2015 sees the expansion of each of its model ranges, including new additions and upgrades to existing models, a couple of eight-string guitars and a new signature. Here, we’re reviewing the new Dellinger Prominence and an extensively re-spec’d Angelus M3B. In Caparison’s world, the Dellinger model is a mainstay model with this new Prominence version being the first carved top version. In reality, the spec is very similar…

While the steel-string acoustic seems very sorted in terms of its style and sound, the nylon-string continues to evolve, especially outside its flamenco and classical roots. One intriguing era is the ‘crossover’ guitar: a nylon-string designed to appeal to steel-string players. It isn’t intended to appeal to scholarly classical players, but by narrowing the neck, adding a radius to the fingerboard and shaping a more steel-like neck profile, the concept has allowed many traditional nylon-string brands to appeal to a much broader audience. Córdoba may have only been founded in 1997, but it proudly states that it “seeks to guide the evolution of the nylon-string guitar, blending traditional craftsmanship of the early master luthiers with modern developments”. “Every guitar is lightweight, responsive and a direct descendant of the Spanish tradition,”…

José Ramirez III (1922-1995) was the third-generation ‘maestro’ luthier of the Ramirez dynasty that still continues in Madrid to this day, headed by his daughter, Amalia. In his small book, Things About The Guitar, a collection of ‘essays’ about the history and construction of the classical and flamenco guitar, he offers a unique insight into guitar making as it was. Ramirez takes us back to the roots of the instrument and how, originally, it was used in the middle of the 19th century. “To listen to genuine flamenco, the only people needed are those that can be sheltered under an umbrella,” he quotes, to illustrate why the flamenco guitar was small-bodied without the need to project in a concert hall. “I have a guitar built by Antonio Torres in 1862…

Bass players probably have a right to feel hard done by when it comes to stompboxes, because there are far more pedals designed for guitar than specifically for bass. While bassists can use guitar pedals, there’s often the likelihood of compromising bass tone, as some guitar overdrive pedals have built-in bass cut when engaged. Not so, though, with Hooker’s Green Bass Machine – there’s plenty of bottom end and a trim pot on the side to adjust it to suit your instrument. One Control says that this pedal is designed to give a modern transistor bass amp more of a valve-amp sound, or the tones of an older transistor model, such as a Sunn transistor bass amp. We reckon it adds a great growl to your bass sound – think…

Ibanez’s legendary Tube Screamer circuitry has been the basis for loads of pedals over the years, but each designer who tackles one must be convinced that they can ‘improve’ on it or at least bring something new. Björn Juhl’s take on it is one of the more inspired we’ve encountered, building in two selectable modes: Vintage and Modern. The mode switch is tucked away where you’ll need a small screwdriver to move it, which is fine, as you’ll probably choose one mode and stick to it. Vintage mode is pure TS-808, with the midrange lift that the pedal is known for, but the Modern setting is something else again with less drive and a neutral sound that just keeps your amp sound intact. Considering all the fuss made about a…

Electrics Epiphone Casino, Korean, Peerless factory SN R00M0545, Blonde, very good condition with case, £425. Email brianlewisinnis@googlemail.com or call 020 8806 5213 London E5 area Epiphone Dot VSB with Epiphone hardcase. Unused condition. £250. Email philharris453@gmail.com Epiphone EA-250 Riviera Kalamazoo. Made in Japan, rare, collectable, almost perfect condition, all original. Pick up only, can deliver in Liverpool. £399. Call Kenny on 07812 431 256 Fender 1991 Japanese Relic Stratocaster in photo flame finish. £450. Call Anthony on 01642 355917 or 07516 412440 or email play.box@hotmail.co.uk Tees-side Fender Strat, Japanese. Floyd Rose II, Fender case. £350ono. Call Bill on 01908 590785 Milton Keynes Fender USA 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Stratocaster with ash body and maple neck/fretboard in mint condition. £1,095. Call Anthony on 01642 355917 or 07516412440 or email play.box@hotmail.co.uk Teesside…

We now only accept reader ads via e-mail to guitarist.readerads@futurenet.com. The 21-word maximum for your advert description (excluding your name and location) still applies. To be fair to all readers and allow for the maximum amount of ads to be included each issue, ads that exceed this count will not be included. In addition, there is a maximum limit of three advertisements per person, per month. Guide example to formatting your adverts CATEGORY: Electrics ADVERT: Fender Stratocaster, USA Standard, 2001, black, white scratchplate, three Lace Sensor pickups, vgc, never gigged, Fender hard case, £435ono. Call Joe on 01234 567890 E-mail joebloggs@youremail.co.uk Runcorn Send your ads to: guitarist.readerads@futurenet.com PLEASE NOTE: Due to the section’s popularity there can sometimes be a period of around a month before your advert will appear.…